If you run a WordPress eCommerce website, your main goal is likely to convert as many sales as possible. However, there is a big difference between forging strong relationships with loyal customers and simply throwing marketing strategies at whomever will take the bait.

Because in the end, the stronger the ties you have with your loyal customer base, the longer they will remain faithful to your brand. In fact, 94% of companies see "higher engagement and conversions rates" with a dedication to customer service.

This is because ultimately, those that cater to their customers in a more personalized way - think effortless shopping experiences, convenience, and excellent product inventory-will experience an increase in sales as a result.

With more and more people using their smartphones and tablets to not only browse the internet, but also do online shopping and run important business and life activities, it's a good idea to make your website mobile-friendly. And that includes using mobile popups.

However, Google recently announced some changes around mobile search results in 2017. One of those changes being the mobile friendly tag, which could be taken off of any sites that use "intrusive interstitials."

This has some people concerned about whether or not they should continue to use mobile popups, but fear not! You can still use mobile popups, you just have to do so in a way that complies with Google's new requirements.

Looking back at 2016, the year was one of the biggest yet for video marketing. More and more outlets adopted this form of advertising than ever before, and this massive adoption rate created new practices and trends that no one really saw coming.

Although all forms of marketing change and adapt over time, few go through changes as quickly as that of video marketing. The Internet Age is one that doesn't slow down for anyone, and this is extremely applicable when talking about online video advertising.

While the core principles and practices will always remain true, the way in which we approach video marketing has seen some big evolutions that you need to properly adhere to if you want to stay ahead of the curve throughout the year. Here are the top 5 video marketing practices that you need to be implementing in 2017.

According to the Pew Research Center, Millennials are the nation's largest living generation. They are a age bracket that lack a long attention span; they crave experiences, activism, and constant connection. They are an age group that doesn't settle, which means your marketing initiatives have to be a bit more creative in order to attract the right attention.

If you're a business that wants to attract millennials, but haven't figured out how, these are some of the best tactics you can use to create a relevant relationship between your brand and Generation Y.

Slowly becoming famous for being the Comic-Con of short films, movies, music, and talks on a variety of topics, SXSW has ended, but not without a recap of the best moments. From politics to technology, and numerous other topics of conversation, the event offered something for everyone.

Celebrating the convergence of the interactive, film, and music industries, SXSW happens yearly to help creative people achieve their goals. The event educates and inspires people on a variety of topics. If you couldn't make it this year, but still want to know about the highlights, please read on.

SXSW is a 10-day extravaganza filled with innovation, creativity and inspiration. The event offers hundreds of talks by industry leaders on a wide array of topics. However, planning your itinerary can be a challenging, even overwhelming, task. But it doesn't have to be. To help, I've put together a list of the top ten marketing talks you should consider attending at SXSW 2017. And it's all about chatbots for 2017.

Automated assistance, or artificial intelligence (AI), is expected to revolutionize the way people communicate with brands online. With the launch of the Messenger chatbot this year, marketers are putting more thought into how they can communicate with their audience. This talk is about how social media artificial assistance is changing the way companies interact with their consumers and how this is expected to change the way they lead them through their sales funnel.

Last year I went to Content Marketing World for the first time. Prior, I had been to several other content/social focused conferences and all are good in their respective niches. But Content Marketing World is really the mother of all things when it comes to content marketing.

Last year, the keynote was delivered by John Cleese which, as you can imagine, was awesome! How do you top John Cleese? It's not easy but the folks behind CMW have done it. This year the keynote speaker will be Mark Hammil. Yes, that Mark Hammil!

As digital advertising methods proliferate and morph, companies funnel more money into television advertising to reach viewers who spend 22-36 hours watching TV every week

Despite what the advertising industry rumblings might lead us to believe over the past few years citing the decline of television as we know it, television advertising is instead alive, well, and producing solid results. In a recent MarketShare study that analyzed advertising performance across industry and media outlets like television, online display, paid search, print and radio advertising, MarketShare found that TV has the highest efficiency at achieving key performance indicators, or KPIs, like sales and new accounts. When comparing performance at similar spending levels, TV averaged four times the sales lift of digital.

In fact, 2016 could wind up being one of the most profitable years ever for TV advertising, thanks in part to Super Bowl 50--which set the stage with its $4.8 million, 30-second commercials. According to Advertising Age, total ad spending on commercials in the Super Bowl from 1967 through 2016 (and adjusted for inflation) was $5.9 billion.

For a long time there's been a love-hate relationship between SEO practitioners and and content marketers and, sadly, isn't going away anytime soon. But, there may be a solution and Google is front and center. But, first, let's take a look at the history between SEO practitioners and content marketers.

Last month, you may have heard of a tiny little event called SXSW which took place in Austin, Texas. Well, that statement may have been true ten years ago but not today. Everyone on the planet has heard of, if not been to, SXSW.

It's no surprise that brands, beginning in 2010 or so, took note of the event's popularity and began their ever-expanding presence at the event. Some took a distaste to this expansion into a territory deemed by some as sacred and only worthy of attendance by geeks, coders, bloggers and the like. Others embraced the inevitable change and rolled with it.

This year, as with recent prior years, brands had a large presence at SXSW. But it's not just presence we see anymore. It's active participation social media to extend the brand's presence beyond attendees to the greater world at large. In addition to organic and paid efforts, many brands employ the proverbial social media influencer to aid in that effort.

Anyone in marketing knows that authenticity is the name of the game if you want powerful campaigns. Well, there is nothing more authentic than real "uber fans" who promote your brand to their community simply because they love it. What could be better?

The only problem is brands often have difficulty finding those super fans, and identifying those with real reach. Crowdly, a Boston-based advocacy marketing platform, has figured out how to connect brands with their biggest advocates, and in stoking that relationship create potent advertising: according to Neilsen, 92% of consumers will believe their friends and family's recommendations over any others.

On my recent trip to SXSW, I was able to speak with Doris Shu, Crowdly's business development expert. She gave me the low-down on how advocacy marketing has worked for Crowdly, and how other brands can follow suit.

First uploaded in July of 2011, this super strange faux PSA of sorts has amassed almost 26 million views to date. Supposedly it's some sort of anti-drug effort. But, all it seems to do is encourage strung out guys to have their way with a collection of super-hot pink underwear-glad bunny girls who, well, turn out to be something entirely different.

In early December, Expedia, Inc. held their annual Partner Conference in Las Vegas where the entire travel industry (or at least those who use Expedia properties which is, like, everyone) gathered to learn the latest and greatest about travel strategies and Expedia offerings.

Part of the conference focused on the offerings from the Expedia Media Solutions group which, in essence, is like a giant ad network for any brand interested in reaching travel demographics. Expedia Inc. owns Expedia, Travelocity, Hotels.com, Orbitz, Hotwire, Trivago and several others. In other words, it's basically everything except booking.com and Kayak. So, yea, if you're a brand looking to tap anything in the travel space, you'll likely be working with Expedia.